Firaxis Games brings the Chosen in to take on ‘XCOM 2’ gamers in a new expansion
Why it matters to you
XCOM 2 fans finally get an expansion this August packing new enemies, new locations, new factions, and loads more in their fight against a new threat: the Chosen.
As expected, Firaxis Games provided a glimpse into a new expansion pack for the popular strategy game XCOM 2 during Intel’s PC Gaming Show at E3 2017. It’s called War of the Chosen, and it’s slated to arrive on PC, Xbox One, and the PlayStation 4 on August 29, 2017, packing three new resistance factions, new missions, new environments, and loads more.
For starters, the upcoming expansion adds the Reapers, the Skimishers, and the Templars. All three factions will have a Hero class soldier to help accomplish the new missions, and according to the developer, all three have their own unique abilities and “contrasting philosophies” to provide new gameplay opportunities.
“ADVENT, in its bid to recapture the Commander, responds by deploying a deadly new enemy force called the ‘Chosen.’ The expansion also includes other new enemies, missions, environments and increased depth in strategic gameplay,” Firaxis says.
The Chosen are a ruthless batch, the fiercest conglomerate of enemies XCOM has faced to date, with each member posing as a threat and employing unique strengths as they are individually introduced with each campaign. But these Chosen also have unique weaknesses players can exploit in order to complete their objective.
Be warned: the Chosen are out to kidnap the Commander, and will stop at nothing in doing so, including interrogating and killing XCOM soldiers, and storming XCOM’s global operations to achieve their goal. To fight back, players must hunt down and destroy strongholds held by the Chosen.
During the reveal, Firaxis introduced a new alien race called the Spectre that can create “dark copies” of XCOM soldiers. There’s a new “enhanced” strategy layer too, enabling engineers, scientists, and soldiers to take part in Covert Actions. That means if the task at hand is completed successfully, players are rewarded with a boost in faction favor and supplies.
“Engage in tactical missions across new environments from abandoned cities devastated by alien bioweapons during the original invasion, to underground tunnels and xeno-formed wilderness regions,” Firaxis adds.
With this expansion, Firaxis is targeting replayability, better customization, and better socialization. For instance, players will benefit from perks and new abilities as soldiers develop bonds with their fellow teammates. There’s also “advanced” campaign options to better adjust the game’s difficulty and length, and new modifiers by way of the SITREP system for a unique challenge during each mission.
On the social front, the expansion provides new community challenges for climbing the global leaderboard ladder for the top spot. Players can also create unique resistance posters to share with friends by customizing and posing their soldier, and then adding elements like backgrounds, filters, and text.
The War of the Chosen expansion is listed on Steam here for an unknown price. It requires XCOM 2 to play, which made its debut in 2016 and serves as the sequel to 2012’s XCOM: Enemy Unknown. To see the upcoming expansion in action, check out the announce trailer above. Meanwhile, for more E3 2017 coverage, tune in here.
100 awesome iPhone apps that will turn your phone into a jack-of-all-trades (June 2017)
Update: This month we’ve added Duolingo, Ditty, Tweetbot 4, Better by Ind.ie, and WLPPR.
Apple’s iPhone is the most popular smartphone in the world, and we want you to get the most out of yours. From dating apps to QR scanners, your phone is capable of nearly anything these days, and some apps just rise above the rest. We’ve recently cut our list of the best iPhone apps in half, bringing you the true cream of the crop: 100 apps, sorted by category, that will make your life simpler, easier, and more enjoyable. If you’re looking for games, check out our roundup here.
iOS essentials, messaging, and dating
Want to find nearby restaurants or track a package using your voice? Well, the official Google app allows users to have full-fledged conversations with their phone. It’s just like Siri, except it connects with your Google accounts.
iTunes
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is an upgrade from the default browser, Safari. The app can sync your history and bookmarks across devices and includes features like search bar autocomplete and unlimited tab functionality.
iTunes
Facebook is the social network. If you want to make your phone Facebook official, you should download this app. A must-have for nearly anyone, as many other social apps, connect through Facebook to acquire vital information.
iTunes
YouTube
YouTube used to come with your phone, but with iOS 6, Apple removed it. Luckily, Google brought it back. If you need to know what YouTube is, please meet us back in 2005. Now featuring Youtube Red, a monthly subscription service that allows downloaded playlists to be used offline and playback with no ads.
iTunes
Wikipedia Mobile
Wikipedia finally made a revised version of its iOS app, which aims to give you better recommendations for content that you’re interested in and match you with articles that pertain to your interests. The app now offers users an “Explore” feed with a number of the most popular articles, as well as a featured article and picture of the day.
iTunes
It may be owned by Facebook, but Instagram is still the best social network for sharing pictures and ruining them with silly filters. We say ruining, but we put X Pro II on just about everything.
iTunes
Communication and messaging
Signal
Signal, from Open Whisper Systems, is one of the most highly recommended apps when it comes to chat encryption and security. This app has military grade encryption for all your messaging and voice calls. It supports sending texts, voice calls, group messages, and sending media attachments. Edward Snowden famously recommended this app, which makes it a top pick for people who are looking for security, first and foremost.
iTunes
Messenger
Facebook now offers its messenger service as a standalone app, enabling you to chat with your Facebook friends and anyone in your contacts with the app installed, without having to be signed into Facebook. We recommend this app for the sheer volume of messaging that happens via Facebook, though it’s a little frustrating that the Facebook app itself no longer includes messaging functionality.
iTunes
Skype
The de facto VOIP service that is owned by Microsoft, Skype is used by more than 250 million users worldwide. Offering free international voice and video calls is a tough deal to pass up.
iTunes
Hangouts
It’s also a standard texting and messaging app, but Hangouts was merged with Google Voice. It now gives you the ability to make video and voice calls, giving you a nifty all-in-one solution.
iTunes
WhatsApp is a great choice for anyone that doesn’t have unlimited texting and spends a lot of time connected to Wi-Fi, letting you send and receive messages, pictures, audio notes, and video messages.
iTunes
Slack
Slack is the premier messaging app for teams and companies, allowing for clear communication throughout every level of your organization. Slack instantly syncs across all devices and is compatible with dozens of other apps and services (like Dropbox) to make your job simpler and easier.
iTunes
Dating
Tinder
Tinder is a terrible app if you want to date. It only shows you someone’s picture and age. But it’s super fun to swipe people away as Hot or Not. If someone thinks you’re hot, you can chat.
iTunes
Bumble
Bumble flips the web dating paradigm on its head by forcing women to make the first move. Match with someone (the app functions pretty much exactly like Tinder) and the woman has 24 hours to send a message or the match expires.
iTunes
Hinge
If you would prefer to do your dating with people your friends can vouch for, check out Hinge. It hooks you up with the best matches in your extended network, connecting you with friends of friends for more familiar dates.
iTunes
OKCupid
OKCupid gets the job done. It’s not great, but it’s free. It will give you matches based on how you answer questions. You can browse profiles and chat with those you’re interested in dating.
iTunes
eHarmony
If you’re serious about finding a relationship, we recommend eHarmony. The subscription service can be pricey for some, but it has the most robust feature set. There’s a separate app for LGBT called Compatible Partners.
iTunes
Mobike, the world’s largest platform for smart bike sharing, pedals into Europe
Why it matters to you
Mobike is one of the easiest bike-sharing platforms to use, and now it’s expanding outside of Asia for the first time and establishing its place in Europe.
If public transportation is slowing you down, you may consider biking instead. And now that Mobike, the world’s largest platform for smart bike sharing, has launched in the U.K. (its first non-Asian market), that option is looking better than ever.
Mobike will become available to commuters in Manchester and Salford on June 29. The easy-to-use platform simply requires bicyclists to download the Mobike app, find a nearby Mobike, and scan its QR code. This automatically unlocks the bike, and from there, they’ll be able to take the bike for a spin around their city.
The bikes feature chainless shaft transmission, non-puncture airless tires, a lightweight aluminium anti-rust frame, enhanced and durable disk-brakes, and an auto-inspired five-spoke wheel. Since launching in Shanghai in April 2016, the company has expanded its services to 100 cities around Asia, and now Europe, too. Last year, Mobike estimates that it reduced CO2 emissions by more than 610,000 tons, thanks to the 2.5 billion kilometers biked by its users.
Hoping to provide an affordable, environmentally friendly, and socially beneficial transportation method for commuters everywhere, Mobike is one of the more tech-forward bike- sharing platforms out there. Each of the bikes in the network is outfitted with smart-lock technology and built-in GPS connected by way of the Mobike Internet of Things network. That means that Mobike is capable of locating and monitoring the health of its entire fleet, and can also keep tabs on location-based demand so it can send more bikes to areas where they’re needed most.
Mobike uses its GPS technology not only allocate its bikes across the city based on traffic and weather conditions, but also to support city planners, local businesses, and urban planning projects.
About 1,000 bikes will be made available with Mobike’s initial U.K. launch, though this figure is expected to increase as demand grows.
As Steve Pyer, general manager of Mobike U.K., notes, “Our aim is to be responsible, sustainable and innovative. We’re confident that Manchester and Salford and their residents will immediately see the benefits of our services, and the city will become a showcase for the urban transformation that is possible when cycling usage rises, and city planning leverages smart data.”
He continued, “We are already in talks with a number of other cities around Europe, and are sure the successful pilot will be the first of many partnerships, allowing us to make cycling the most convenient and affordable choice for those in cities all around Europe.”
First photo ever taken with a smartphone was snapped 20 years ago
Why it matters to you
Smartphone photography no longer requires three separate devices, but some of the networking infrastructure remains the same.
If you snapped a photo with a smartphone today, you should probably thank Phillippe Kahn. June 11 marked the 20th anniversary of the date that the first photo was shot via smartphone after the entrepreneur rigged a Casio QV-10 camera, a Motorola Startac phone, a laptop, and a bunch of cables just in time to share a photo of his daughter fifteen minutes after she was born.
The internet was only a few years old when Kahn started experimenting with a web server that could send photos and texts through email notifications in 1996 and 1997. “Remember it was 1996/97, the web was very young and nothing like this existed,” Kahn wrote in a blog post celebrating the anniversary. “The server architecture that I had designed and deployed is in general the blueprint for all social media today: Store once, broadcast notifications, and let people link back on demand and comment.”
Kahn had the server infrastructure functional when his wife went into labor but didn’t yet have a way to interface between the phone in the laptop. When the doctors told the couple they had some time before the baby would arrive, the dad-to-be and future father of smartphone photography went out to his car and pulled out a StarTAC speakerphone kit and had the system ready before their daughter took her first breath. The first photo taken by a smartphone, measuring just 320 by 240 pixel images, was sent to 2,000 people when baby Sophie was just fifteen minutes old.
That very first photo wasn’t taken with the integrated cameras that we use today, but Kahn’s mess of cables inspired him to continue refining the idea until the first camera phone was produced in Japan in 1999 and the first camera phone in the U.S., LightSurf, was produced in 2002. After the success of his experiment, Kahn actually went to Kodak and Polaroid and pitched the idea, but was turned down, with each company concluding that phones would be focused on voice.
Kahn notes that other companies put camera sensors inside phones, but what made his tech different was the cloud-based infrastructure that allowed those photos to be shared instantly, which is why Kahn called his feature Instant Picture Mail.
Now, Kahn’s daughter Sophie is in college and nearly half of the photos uploaded to Flickr are taken by smartphone cameras. Thankfully, sharing an instant digital photo no longer requires a camera, laptop, and smartphone, but much of the server architecture actually remains the same, Kahn says.
Scientists use a supercomputer to build a simulation of the known universe
Why it matters to you
This simulation will help with the research of mapping out billions of galaxies in the cosmos and deciphering the nature of dark energy.
What do you see when you look at the above picture? If you say, “the inside of the grossest hair-clogged drain ever seen” you would be wrong.
In fact, this hairy-looking Rorschach test is an image taken from a project at the University of Zurich in Switzerland — where researchers have used a supercomputer to create a simulation of our entire known universe — made up of some 25 billion virtual galleries. Stretching a billion years across, the map shows how dark matter is distributed in space, with the yellow clumps showing dark matter and the white areas being the cosmic void, aka the lowest density regions in the universe.
The resulting catalog will be used to calibrate experiments on board by the Euclid Consortium, a collaboration with more than 1,000 scientists in the world, whose aim is to map out billions of galaxies in the cosmos and decipher the nature of dark energy. The information will ultimately be used for researching the universe with the Euclid satellite, which will be launched into space in 2020.
“The techniques we have developed are unique: A fast multipole method for gravity that works on thousands of nodes in parallel, and the use of graphics cards to accelerate the calculation,” Romain Teyssier, a professor of computational astrophysics, told Digital Trends. “Because of these two innovations, our code has achieved the largest simulation so far of the entire observable universe, featuring 2 trillion digital particles. We used the Piz Daint supercomputer of the Swiss national supercomputing center, which is made of more than 5,000 GPUs. The unique combination of our innovative code and this world-leading machine is really making this result exciting.”
Executing the code took 80 hours for everything to compile. To put that number in perspective, the Piz Daint supercomputer — a Cray XC30 system — can compute in one day more than a modern laptop could compute in 900 years. Theoretically, that means that trying to generate this project on your run-of-the-mill notebook would take roughly three millennia.
The work is described in a paper published in the journal Computational Astrophysics and Cosmology.
Up next? Things could potentially get even more exciting. “Our goal is to prepare the next simulations, and include more physics like massive neutrinos, or simulate a universe with different laws of gravity,” Teyssier said.
Scientists use a supercomputer to build a simulation of the known universe
Why it matters to you
This simulation will help with the research of mapping out billions of galaxies in the cosmos and deciphering the nature of dark energy.
What do you see when you look at the above picture? If you say, “the inside of the grossest hair-clogged drain ever seen” you would be wrong.
In fact, this hairy-looking Rorschach test is an image taken from a project at the University of Zurich in Switzerland — where researchers have used a supercomputer to create a simulation of our entire known universe — made up of some 25 billion virtual galleries. Stretching a billion years across, the map shows how dark matter is distributed in space, with the yellow clumps showing dark matter and the white areas being the cosmic void, aka the lowest density regions in the universe.
The resulting catalog will be used to calibrate experiments on board by the Euclid Consortium, a collaboration with more than 1,000 scientists in the world, whose aim is to map out billions of galaxies in the cosmos and decipher the nature of dark energy. The information will ultimately be used for researching the universe with the Euclid satellite, which will be launched into space in 2020.
“The techniques we have developed are unique: A fast multipole method for gravity that works on thousands of nodes in parallel, and the use of graphics cards to accelerate the calculation,” Romain Teyssier, a professor of computational astrophysics, told Digital Trends. “Because of these two innovations, our code has achieved the largest simulation so far of the entire observable universe, featuring 2 trillion digital particles. We used the Piz Daint supercomputer of the Swiss national supercomputing center, which is made of more than 5,000 GPUs. The unique combination of our innovative code and this world-leading machine is really making this result exciting.”
Executing the code took 80 hours for everything to compile. To put that number in perspective, the Piz Daint supercomputer — a Cray XC30 system — can compute in one day more than a modern laptop could compute in 900 years. Theoretically, that means that trying to generate this project on your run-of-the-mill notebook would take roughly three millennia.
The work is described in a paper published in the journal Computational Astrophysics and Cosmology.
Up next? Things could potentially get even more exciting. “Our goal is to prepare the next simulations, and include more physics like massive neutrinos, or simulate a universe with different laws of gravity,” Teyssier said.
Move over, quadcopters! A hexacopter could be the most versatile drone yet
Why it matters to you
This cutting-edge hexacopter could be the most versatile and athletic drone yet.
Seemingly every week there is some new exciting drone design appearing on the horizon, both figuratively and literally.
One fascinating new concept is Voliro, a hexacopter with six individually tiltable axes, created by students from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Zurich University of the Arts. With a massive 12 degrees of freedom in the air, this could be the most versatile unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) yet!
“Multicopters have enabled a variety of possibilities and revolutionized entire industries with their potential,” Cliff Li, a mechanical engineering student who served as team leader on the project, told Digital Trends. “Yet multicopters are not unlimited in their flying capabilities. To hover, they have to stay horizontal, and to move they have to tilt. For the Voliro hexacopter this is not necessary. It can turn in midair, and move in any direction, no matter how it is oriented. It can fly vertically, upside down, or at any other angle, and proves that completely unrestricted flight is possible.”
Those are big claims, but watching Voliro in action makes us want to believe them. It almost certainly wouldn’t be the easiest drone to pilot, but the tantalizing promise of omnidirectional flight would make the steep learning curve worthwhile.
“Similar to a regular multicopter, modules can be attached on the underside of the Voliro hexacopter, giving it further functionalities,” Li said. “One example is a camera module. The hexacopter can act as a gimbal and therefore doesn’t need one. It can also fly upside down and take footage of what is above the rotors, which is impossible for a regular multicopter with a gimbal. Another example is interaction with walls and various curved structures, as it can adapt its orientation to that of the surface.”
At present, however, Li said that the project has been more about demonstrating that omnidirectional fight is feasible than focusing on use-cases, but these applications are things the team might focus on next.
“Further research will most likely be scientific in nature, but commercialization is not ruled out,” he said. From the sound of things, we could be waiting a while, though.
VSCO’s popular mobile filters are now available for desktop photo editing
Why it matters to you
The film-inspired digital filters on the popular VSCO app are now available as Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw presets.
The instant nature of smartphone photography has inspired equally instant edits through digital filters — but now one app is bringing those same effects to desktop computers. On Monday, VSCO announced its app’s mobile photo filters are now available as Lightroom and Photoshop RAW presets.
VSCO Mobile Presets 01 include 58 presets that mimic the look of the filters inside the popular photo-editing app. VSCO says the presets are ideal for lifestyle, portraits, landscapes, and other genres.
The presets cover a range of styles, including analog, black and white, instant photography and minimalist. Along with the stylistic edits, the presets include a number of other instant VSCO tools that allow users to quickly darken skies, correct skin, reduce noise, add a vignette, and more. The presets are compatible with Lightroom CC as well as versions 4, 5, and 6, while also compatible with Adobe Camera Raw that’s packaged with Photoshop CS6 and CC.
The new presets aren’t the first time VSCO has launched editing tools for desktop users — the mobile options join a number of options designed to emulate different film styles. The new pack is, however, the first time the company has brought a collection focused on popular mobile editing styles to a desktop program. The company says the latest collections are a result of requests from many different users.
The entire pack of presets lists for $59.
“A diverse range of 58 beautiful presets, MP1 was designed to help you easily mimic the looks celebrated on VSCO’s mobile app when editing images on desktop,” the company wrote in a blog post. “These presets are ideal for lifestyle photography, portraiture, landscapes and everything in between.”
VSCO is a California-based company that launched in 2011. The mobile app launched a year later and quickly became an editing favorite because of the film-inspired presets, earning a nod from the App Store and now ranked between 10 million and 50 million downloads on Google Play alone.
Watch the best ‘Injustice 2’ players compete for $250,000 on TBS this fall
In a surprising move from a channel known for sitcom reruns, cable network TBS formed an esports league (called ELEAGUE, naturally) and began regularly broadcasting matches on television in 2016. To showcase its first competitive season of Injustice 2, DC’s hero brawler, the league will air its championship matches on TV and online this fall.
The Injustice 2 World Championship will feature a 16-player tournament with $250,000 in prize money. TBS will air select matches on TV with full coverage of all games on digital platforms. The event starts with an open qualifier on Saturday, October 21st.
Injustice 2 is the fourth game in ELEAGUE’s roster, following Counter-Strike, Street Fighter V and Overwatch. The latter had its television tournament debut on TBS via the network’s esports league last September, which is crazy growth for a game that had only been released five months before. While today’s announcement to broadcast the Injustice 2’s world championships comes barely a month after it hit shelves, the game includes superheroes like Wonder Woman, whose movie is currently dominating cinema sales charts, along with most of the characters from the Justice League film, which is set to release in November — shortly after ELEAGUE’s tournament ends.
Source: ELEAGUE
Microsoft to bring Ultra HD to ‘Age of Empires’ in upcoming revamp
Why it matters to you
Fans of the original Age of Empires should be tickled pink over an overhauled version packing Ultra HD visuals, a redesigned interface, intelligent AI, and more.
During the PC Gaming Show event at E3 2017, Microsoft Studios unveiled Age of Empires: Definitive Edition as part of the game’s 20th anniversary. The company is bringing the classic real-time strategy game into the new visual age of 4K with revamped and enhanced visuals for ultra-high visual goodness, “modernized” gameplay, and the ability to play online through Xbox Live.
That said, Microsoft Studios overhauled the entire game by upgrading every asset so it looks superb on your Ultra HD TV. That means smoother battleground terrain, properly shaded characters and structures, and buildings with greater detail. There are new zoom levels, an overhauled user interface for clean, easy troop management on Ultra HD screens, and even an “Idle Villager” button.
But the visual improvement isn’t the only change. Microsoft Studios set out to bring the gameplay into the modern era such as an attack-move mechanic and control groups. The studio also implemented a pathfinding feature so that units don’t find themselves lost as they travel to their objective. Overall, the AI is better than before so players can focus on experimenting with the new commands to defeat the enemy.
“We have put a ton of cool new stuff in this 4K remastered version of our original game,” the company said. “Including all upgraded art assets, completely new narration throughout, and hundreds of new and rebuilt sound effects! The game will include single player and multiplayer modes, as well as a classic mode for when you just need to get the look and feel of that good ol’ AoE!”
Age of Empires: Definitive Edition will rely on achievements, lobbies, and a matchmaking system. There will be stat tracking too so that gamers can brag and compare their conquests. Enhancing both online and offline gameplay will be a completely remastered soundtrack based on a live symphony, bringing the game up-to-speed with today’s games on an audible level.
Microsoft originally published Age of Empires for the PC in October of 1997. Developed by Ensemble Studios, it’s based on a 2D sprite-based game engine called Genie, and became a huge hit. Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings arrived in 1999, followed by Age of Empires III in 2005. The original game focused on an era spanning from the Stone Age to the Iron Age in Africa, Asia, and Europe.
The move to provide a Definitive Edition for Age of Empires is part of Microsoft’s big push for PC gaming. The revamped game will presumably be offered through the Windows Store later this year, but anxious fans can test-drive the game now through a closed beta offered here (warning: the site is very slow). The system specifications are unknown, but given the game’s age, it should run well on hardware configurations that support a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution at a decent framerate.
Unfortunately, we have no indication regarding a possible Xbox One version, and if it will become a Play Anywhere title as a result. However, with the release of Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, fans of the classic can finally toss out their decrepit copy stored on a CD-ROM disc … unless you’re a hoarder, of course.
For more E3 2017 coverage, we have it all right here.
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